IT News - January 2009

In this newsletter:

1. Free Laptop every three years! Only available until 31 Mar 2009.
   
2. How to back up to DVD. Easy and free.
   
3. Wireless Keyboard Security Issue. Your passwords revealed.
   
4. How to change keyboard layouts. From Spanish to English and Back again in two clicks.
   

Laptop Replaced Every 3 Years For Free - For Life!! Seriously!!

This is not Steve being generous or a scam or anything in between. This is a genuine offer from a reputable manufacturer: Fujitsu-Siemens.

Buy a laptop from the Lifebook range and they will replace it free every 3 years with an uptodate model of the same value. What better way to beat the credit crunch. OK, so you have to spend now but never again! OK, there are a few rules (see below) but, if you can abide by them, there's no catch!

The full offer can be read on the T&Cs page. But here is a summary of the important bits:

1. Must be UK Resident (so you have to order it in the UK).
2. Must be a laptop from the LifeBook Range (not cheap but well specified).
3. Replacement will be up to the original cost + 10%. e.g. Buy at £1000 replacement value up to £1100 after 3 years.
4. Must be returned in good working order (don't spill your wine on it!).
5. Only valid for purchases up to 31st March 2009.
6. You must purchase a 3 year warranty (around £50).

Other than that I don't see any strings.

If you're wondering if I've bought one then the answer is no. This is because:

1. I don't have £900.

I tend to advise my clents NOT to buy a laptop because they are so difficult to repair and / or upgrade but this offer seems to negate this concern. After 3 years is when things normally start to go wrong and also when the specification starts looking a bit dated.

If you've read the T&Cs and you are interested then here are the laptops that are available: Lifebook.

Backup To DVD

You know that things are back to normal after the holidays when Steve has another nag about backups! I was prompted to write this paragraph after I was able to backup a number of clients' data onto only one or two DVDs. Backups have a reputation for being complicated, tiresome and a job to do 'tomorrow'. I'm going to keep this brief so don't look away!

Most computers now have a rewritable DVD drive and the discs are now quite cheap and the data stored on them cannot be accidentally erased or damaged as easily as hard disk or tape. Also, most backup software (look to your disk writing program in the first instance for backup software) support DVD disks. DVDs can store 4.7GB and the double sided disks store 9.4GB. Disks are only about 2 Euros.

So, you have no excuses! Surely, this is a good candidate for a New Year Resolution!

Wireless Keyboard Security Issue

Security research group Dreamlab have released a new white paper entitled 27Mhz Wireless Keyboard Analysis Report aka "We know what you typed last summer". The paper, written by Max Moser & Philipp Schrödel, describes the inherent design flaw which leaves a majority of wireless keyboards wide open to keylogging.

It's quite worrying to see just how easy it is to sniff and extract keystrokes from these keyboards with no need for dongles, trojans or specialist equipment. The 27Mhz keyboards only use 8bit encryption which can be cracked relatively quickly with quite modest hardware. From what I can tell, all that's required is a 27Mhz capable receiver, a sound card, and a computer. The range will obviously be dictated by the receiver and its antenna.

I don't know if this applies to your wireless keyboard or not but the models tested in the paper were Microsoft so there is a good chance that if it applies to theirs then it will appy to yours. What this means, is that you are using a wireless keyboard then your passwords can be logged by someone within the range of your computer with a wireless keyboard sender/receiver unit (this is the same as the unit on your desk that is connected to the computer via a usb cable).

I personally use a cabled mouse and keyboard because I find them nore responsive and reliable but I didn't realise they were also more secure!

Spanish / English Keyboards

While we're talking keyboards:

If you are living in Spain the chances are you are going to have a problem with the keyboard layout that is used as the default by XP or Vista. Whether your Windows is Spanish or English or your keyboard is Spanish or English you will find that the keys you see are not the keys you want to use. I wll explain how to quickly and easily change from Spanish to English keyboards.

In XP, this is how you add a different keyboard layout:

1. Go to the control panel. Start à Control Panel
2. Open Regional and Language Options
3. Choose Languages Tab
4. Click Details
5. Click Add
6. Select the input language from the drop down; list: choose ‘Spanish, International Sort'
7. OK
8. OK

If you have a different layout for Control Panel then:

1. Choose Date, Time, Language and Regional Options
2. Choose Regional and Language Options
3. Follow on from step 3 above

With Vista, the last option will be closer to what you will see. In either case, take the opportunity to remove the US keyboard (click on it and remove, click OK if it tells you that it will be removed on reboot) and add the UK one if necessary.

When you have installed the keyboard you have a choice between two keyboards: the English you started with and the Spanish you have just installed. You shouild see "EN" somewhere on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Click on this and you will get a choice of ES - the one that you want. When you have finished with ES then do the reverse.

A quicker way to change the keyboard layout is to hold down the shift key and press the Alt key (left of the spacebar). Happy clicking!

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